Every year in November, I do a post each day of the month where I share my gratitude for something. In this time of Thanksgiving, I love to reflect on my many blessings, be they large or small, and I invite my readers to share one thing for which they are also thankful that day.
Today, I am thankful for the amazing opportunities I’ve had to learn this past year. The fact that I was able to do this in such a low-income year amazes me. This year has been, by far, one of the lowest income years we’ve had in our nineteen years of marriage, but we’ve thrived for several reasons, and I am ever so grateful.
What are you thankful for today?
I am thankful that my father-in-law has a clear scan after a year long battle with Stage 4 Esophageal Cancer. Unheard of, especially at 89! God is great!
Cheryl, that is amazing news. Congratulations to your family and best wishes and prayers for your father-in-law!
Could you please elaborate on what caused you to thrive while going through a low income year? We could use some of that.
Hi Jyl!
We’ve significantly lowered our housing expenses (we refinanced a few years back and cut our payment in half), we continue to live frugally and last year and were able to put aside six months’ worth of money (we used five months’ worth to pay bills and a little less than one month’s worth to pay our daughter’s first college tuition payment), we continue to do all the frugal things that we have always done as well as continue to look for new ways to save money. Our eldest is now supporting herself and our second eldest has a job as well.
If you’re brand-new to my site, be sure to read here:
http://theprudenthomemaker.com/cutting-expenses-when-you-think-you-have-nothing-left-to-cut/
as well as the other articles under the “live” tab. Also visit my “Start Here” page: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/start-here/
I’m thankful that I have connected with some family/friends that I have not been in touch with for over 50 years and we’ve been spending some time getting to know each other and enjoying one another’s company.
So glad you are doing this series! Thank you for taking the time to do it publicly!
Today, I am thankful for kindness, and for the people who choose to make it a defining characteristic of themselves.
I am thankful my husband is home from a rare month-long business trip and does not travel full-time.
Meals on Wheels delivered their “blizzard boxes” today, a small box and big bag of food to each of their seniors to make sure they have something to eat on the days the weather is too nasty for normal lunch deliveries. Mom feels spoiled.
Yesterday, mom’s ophthalmologist agreed with her retinal specialist that her eyes have pretty much stabilised. She is scheduled to visit her retinal specialist next in February and her regular eye doctor in May. She has had four conditions: cataracts, glaucoma, wet macular degeneration and dry macular degeneration. Three of the four would have left her blind if she had gotten them before treatments were developed that have worked for her. Thankfully, the one without any effective treatments yet, her dry macular degeneration, is progressing slowly.
I am thankful to have had a few days by myself while my husband was out of town. I had a list of projects to complete during that time, and I got them all done.
Love it!
I am thankful that, despite having to spend many thousands of dollars on dental work this year, I still have enough to buy food to donate to the community food drive taking place between now and mid-December.
I am also thankful for these thankful posts, which make me think about and appreciate all I have.
I am, as always, thankful for my family and our dogs. They give my life meaning and purpose (after God).
We were able to host some extended family members last night, some of whom have never met. It was a wonderful evening with many new memories.
I, too, am so very thankful that we have also been able to thrive in our much-reduced financial circumstances for the past year. God has met each and every need, in His time, using many people and circumstances to do this. We had every single thing we needed and a whole lot of things we just wanted. So much to be thankful for!
Today I am thankful for my BFF, Mary, whom I visited last week. And I do mean forever…since we met in 1955, when she was 8 and I was 9. (That’s 64 years of a friendship, folks!).
I am thankful for my family (husband, 15 yr old granddaughter & 12 year old grandson) that have moved my bedroom around for the winter.
They also moved in a new mattress for me.
I live alone and am disabled. If not for them I would be colder this winter.
Life is so good.
I am thankful for antibiotics, which cleared up a painful and difficult gum infection. I am also grateful that the course of treatment is complete, so that my stomach has some time to go back to normal, and I don’t have to remember to take one pill four times a day with food, and one pill three times a day without food.
And thank you, Brandy, for modelling for us how to be graceful in difficult times.
Thankful for my husband of 37 years, who goes out his way to be extra kind and make smile those people often treated poorly (like store clerks). Being married to him has made me a kinder person.
I’m thankful for your writing! I’m also thankful for the good health of my loved ones, the joy of seeing seasons change, and my cozy home to keep warm in.
I am so thankful for my sister Holly, who had the courage, generosity and grace to give me her kidney. After 11 years of illness I am repaired! I am so grateful to God and the transplant team at the University of Maryland.. I hardly have the words to say how grateful and glad I am every day..
I am thankful for my job. I have worked at a small, family-owned business for 20 years. My personal family has always been allowed, and even encouraged, to come first. I am paid well and, as of this year, have cut back to 4 days a week (for the same salary as 5). It has been a blessing in our lives!
I am thankful that after a lifetime of frugality we are in really comfortable shape in our retirement. We feel we really have far more than we need. As a result I constantly look around to see who we can help, even after our regular monthly charitable contributions.
Thankful to live in a time and place where medical advances have been able to extend the lives that would have certainly been lost even 10 years ago! Our 45 year old son with his Stage 3 Colon Cancer treated with oral chemo, radiation, surgery and IV chemo and an optimistic prognosis. Husband with heart implant that will close off area where blood clots got in the heart and will take him off blood thinners!
Not that long ago, we might have lost them both this year!
I am thankful today that I was able to unclog a drain without calling a plumber. My husband (who passed away last year) used to easily take care of these kinds of things, but now that I’m on my own – it has been a challenge for me.
Ruth, I understand you so completely. It’s been 3 years for me.
Sending you love and much grace.
Patricia/FL
I forgot all about these yearly posts! It’s always a joy to read them, too. I am grateful my daughter had a good week at school, despite some minor issues that could have easily caused problems. I am so thankful for the amazing school staff who are working with her this year.
I am thankful that, in the midst of my crazy, overwhelming schedule of family responsibilities, God gave me 45 minutes to minister to a truly needy woman, literally placed in my path, as I left the store. She had serious COPD and the very swollen legs of gout. I was able to buy her two meals, pay for her copay of delivered meds for her breathing machine, get additional help for her from my church, and pray for her before I left her. Her needs are far more desperate than mine. I am grateful God chose to use me to bless her for that moment of time.
I am thankful to have positive relationships with my family, especially my sisters. Not everyone does.
I’m thankful for wood for the stove and oil for the furnace.
I am thankful for my sister, who came over at the last minute to baby-sit, so that I could get some cooking and chores done. She is always there for me, and I am so incredibly thankful for her.
I’m thankful for my husband of 37 years. He lets me be me and loves me for it. He is one of those guys everyone likes immediately. He has always taken care of me and our kids and anyone else who needs help. I am blessed!
I am thankful for a recent surgery and current three times a week physical therapy that will allow me to walk again and to be more independent.
I am thankful for this November series on thankfulness, I always look forward to a whole month of wonderful posts!
We’ve had several stressful weeks so I’m thankful to have time to just breathe…..
I am thankful for a new job opportunity for my husband that will bring us closer to family, help us continue to pay off student loans, and look forward optimistically to homeownership.
I am thankful you shared your November gratitude practice. It started a new routine in my family. My husband and I started sharing what we are grateful for every night before bed, when you first posted this several years back in November. We liked it so much we have kept it up every day since!
That’s wonderful!
I am thankful for the Mister.
He’s always my rock, the best warm arms to fall into, and a great sounding board.
Brandy, that is wonderful to read!
I am thankful you are doing this series again this year, because it reminds me to stop and count my many blessings1
I’m grateful that we have learned to live frugally before my husband got approved for disability. It has been a bit scary but we made it.
I am grateful for all the help we have been given to train our service dog for my daughter. I am grateful for our service dog a black lab who really loves her work and the sheer joy she has brought to our lives as well as the tremendous support she provides my daughter.
Although I contend with illness and disability daily when I began to think of all I have to be grateful for I realized that the list was so long that a verse from the Bible describes it perfectly, “My cup runneth over”. Truly, God is good.
I am grateful my 88 year old father is still alive, that I have a wonderful fiancee, that two small businesses I have started in recent months are thriving – and so grateful for the joy and abundance of our large gardens and orchard. What a rich blessing they are. Last year I called it the “Summer of Sunflowers” – we grew hundreds of them, red, yellow, chocolate, violet, cream, multi-coloured, tall, dwarf and giant! – and every one of them brought joy to my heart, magnified even more when the bees, butterflies and birds shared my delight in them.
I am thankful also for you Brandy for your wonderful blog and photos – and to all who come here and make comments. May God richly bless you all.
Warmest good wishes,
Wendy
(New Zealand)
I am thankful for the chance to get together and spend time with two of my best girlfriends last month.
I am grateful for work that not only helps to pay the bills in semi-retirement but which I also find to be very interesting and for the fact that it has gotten me back out into the world and off my couch!
I am grateful for the time to visit an elderly uncle this past week, and for friends who are many miles but only a phone call away.
I am grateful for a wonderful day off – time to cook & catch up at home and time to just sit with a cup of tea and to be able to spend the afternoon reading.
I am thankful that in spite of a hit and run driver rear-ending our son on the highway at full speed, our son miraculously escaped without serious injury. His vehicle can be replaced but the wreck could have been far far worse. So blessed that he is alive and well!
I have osteoarthritis and am very thankful for my husband of 42 years who brings me a cup of tea in bed each morning and then makes breakfast, giving me a chance to mobilise for the day.
Lulu, Australia
I am thankful for the wonderful family God has blessed me with. I want to do this Thankful ❤️ post for the full month, so went back to start to catch up.
I am thankful for turning 65 and looking back at all the wonderful opportunities and joys life has given me.
I am thankful for my first grandchild, who was born on October 11th. He is such a joy to hold and is much loved! I am also thankful that we live close enough that I can visit often and enjoy time together with my daughter and grandson. Life is good!
I so love this each year. Thank you, Brandy! I am so thankful for my husband, Adam. We celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary November 2nd and he has been the best husband and father. He is so giving, generous, steadfast, loyal and loving.
I am thank-FIL for the variety of friends I have. Some old, some young. Some in my church, some old ones from school. Some new from volunteering , some close like next door, some far from places I have lived or visited. They are all a blessing in my life.
I am thankful for each of my children. They give so much joy. I am thankful for owning a home again after moving THREE times this year.
I am thankful for the strength of character I discovered in the face of great adversity.
I am thankful for having the wisdom to see that a wonderful former friend, who is probably the only man I would have married, needed to have a relationship with someone who could discover the world with him by travelling to far-off places I could not go. Time is short and I am glad I set him free to enjoy the world to the maximum. In other words, I am grateful for the wonderful moments we snatched together — we stole moments– in wildflower meadows, — in sharing precious words in precious novels. Above all, I loved it when we laughed — even when our personal worlds were dissolving. I am thankful he showed me how to give relatives the freedom to die — to not bind loved ones but to create a gentle passing for them.
I am thankful for the lovely mementoes that he surprised me with — now when I sort through my papers and things I come across a beautiful card from him from Bhutan, — no message but a beautiful etching of a monastery on a high hill — the card itself is the message — a fossilized rock liberated from a mountaintop and carted down in a backpack (the only man to give me fossilized worms), a photo of that unique wildflower seen on a “baby” hike. I am thankful that the man who climbed mountains was patient to explore, and took joy in doing so, on a short hike with me and could spend seven hours looking at flowers on a normally twenty minute walk (while I had to stop and rest every twenty feet). I am thankful that he would just turn up on a whim and whisk me away to see distant mountains with their larches turning golden. And so strong was the connection between us that once when I travelled on a rare trip, I stood across from his childhood home without realizing it and felt an incredible powerful feeling. My friend always said on returning from a trip that he had thought of me all the time when he was gone. I hope he knows now that I thought of him too and thought enough of him to give him his freedom. And think of him, still.
I am thankful for strangers who stop and help people with COPD and legs badly swollen with gout — people like Tejas who by her acts of kindness not only may have made the woman’s day — her month — but may have changed her life.
Today I am thankful that DH’s brain aneurysm is stable for now and for wonderful technology that detected it 🙂 .
I am thankful for a job I love (most of the time) and that it rewards me well enough to afford to keep a home of my own.
I, too, would like to be thankful each day, but just logged on again. First and foremost, I am thankful for my faith and for a loving God who is merciful.